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Math in the Postmodern Age

This just might be my shortest blog ever. But, the point needs to be made!

The media was abuzz today with the news that unemployment has fallen to 8.5%. First of all, that’s worth celebrating? 8.5% unemployment in a nation of 300 some million people merits a ticker-tape parade? I think not. But that’s not the point. My beef with that number today is the fact that this administration and the numbers flowing from their so-called “tallies” are absolute, 100% fabrications. Bold. Face. Lies.

“What?? How can this be??” you might say, “If the news is reporting it, then it HAS to be true, right??”

Here’s the dirty little secret:

Say you have a town of 1,000 people. Of those 1,000 people, 100 are unfortunately out of work. That means there’s 10% unemployment in that town. 50 of those 100 people have been unemployed for a really, really, REALLY long time, so the town decides to stop counting them as part of the work force. So now, the town is looking at 50 unemployed people in a workforce of 950 people. Voila. Unemployment is now 5.26%

Now, just multiply that by MILLIONS upon MILLIONS, and then suddenly, 8.5% materializes.